From my perspective, I think ads are just about the smallest issue with YouTube's platform. I don't mind a reasonable amount of YouTube ads too much. Hosting millions of videos is expensive, and it's reasonable that they find a way to at least make enough money to sustain it. I'm not expecting Google to host a free video charity forever; are you?

But YouTube's management is incredibly hostile to both creators and viewers with regards to everything that made them so popular in the first place: everything from bad algorithms, to censorship, to bad and unfriendly policies for independent creators, to cringe Rewind and CEO videos, and other things show that show that they really don't care about keeping a beautiful site alive.

Also Sponsorblock which can strip out many of the "and now let me talk about the sponsor for today's video" sections.